


who has sympathy for the devil?

by phinnia



Category: Lucifer (Comic), Lucifer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:14:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 11,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22885342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phinnia/pseuds/phinnia
Summary: I was thinking about this as I re-watched the series, because I have a psychology degree and am not afraid to use it.
Relationships: Amenadiel/Linda Martin (Lucifer TV), Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Comments: 30
Kudos: 244





	1. Chapter 1

She heard the song coming out of Ella's lab as she was walking by. The scientist was having an 'oldies day' and rocking out to the Rolling Stones instead of her usual Beastie Boys. 

"Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name, but what's confusing you is the nature of my game." She was dancing backwards across the floor to the song, and Chloe couldn't help but smile.

Then she realized something.

Who _had_ sympathy for the devil? Before herself, before Ella? Had he had friends? He obviously had a troubled relationship with his family - well, troubled wasn't really the right word, it was more like 'contentious' - but ...

Perhaps she should talk to Amenadiel. She texted him about lunch.

"So, what is hell like?" she asks him over a quiet booth at a local diner.

"Well, people mostly are in their own loops - their own individual Hells, if you will. So there's a lot of doors and hallways off to the sides. It's always raining ash down there. The only real landmark is Lucifer's throne, which is enormous. A massive thing made of stone, thousands of feet high. There's a lot of rioting going on most of the time. A lot of bloody coups among demonic clans."

"Why?"

"Well, the only thing demons respect is violence and pain, Chloe. The throne is so high so only an angel can rule down there."

"So he has to fly up." She muses. 

"Exactly."

"And he can't really talk to anyone."

"Well, no. Most demons aren't really much for emotional maturity. Most demons aren't much for _emotions_. They'd see that as a weakness and exploit it."

"How old was he when your parents threw him out of Heaven?" She immediately regretted the question. "In human terms, I mean. That makes it clearer."

Amenadiel thought about that for a moment. "Uh ... I'd say sixteen, perhaps?"

Chloe stares at him. "Sixteen."

"Yes."

"Your father threw him out of his home - permanently - and sent him to _hell_ , for the rest of eternity, never to be welcomed back again, to rule on an isolated stone statue with not a soul to talk to in the middle of some barren nothing filled with _demons_ trying to kill him at what amounted to the age of sixteen?"

Amenadiel sighs. "When you put it like that, it sounds terrible."

"It _is_ terrible, Amenadiel!" Chloe shouts. "If you weren't four times bigger than me I'd punch you in the face! And you kept trying to take him back there!"

This explains _so much_ about Lucifer. Chloe's mind races. The need for touch and sex, the women and men. The fact that she feels like she's dealing with a sixteen-year-old most of the time. The fidgeting and dislike of boredom. The threesomes, foursomes. The _orgies_.

She really _is_ dealing with a sixteen year old. Emotionally, he is sixteen. Even though she's seen his body - clothed and unclothed, devil and angel - and he's _definitely_ an adult. ( _the berries are ripe and ready to be harvested_ , he'd said once. She'd love to take a look at those berries right now.)

She takes the rest of the afternoon off. She needs to talk to Linda. 

She storms into Linda's living room. "He was sixteen when he was thrown out."

Linda is reading to Charlie. She looks up. "What?"

"Lucifer. He was _sixteen_ , Linda. Or, well, the equivalent of sixteen in our years." She paces around, avoiding Charlie's toys through long practice of living with Trixie and Maze. "And there's nobody for him to talk to down there. Literally, no one. His throne is thousands of feet off the ground and he has to fly up to get to it. He's _isolated._ "

"That explains a lot." Linda murmurs. "The loud music, the alcohol, the drugs ... it's all sensory-seeking behavior to make up for a terrible environment."

Chloe sinks down in a chair and starts crying. "I'm just so _angry_."

Linda hands her a box of tissues and Charlie, and she weeps in the little boy's hair for a while.

Three days later, she's just settling in with a decent book - Trixie is at Dan's for the weekend - when there's a knock at her door. 

Postman or something. She gets up and opens it. 

Lucifer is standing there, covered in blood and ash and bruises, his suit torn and with one shoe on. 

"Lucifer." She says, stepping back. 

"Detective." he says hoarsely. 

"Come in! Come in, come in, damn it." She grabs his sleeve and tugs him inside. "Are you all right? I'll get you some water. Sit down." 

He drains the glass dry and squeezes his eyes shut. "Thank you. For that. What day is it?"

"Uh ... Saturday? The twenty-third of July? Did you want something to eat?"

"Please." he says, and it's almost a groan.

Chloe ransacks her refrigerator, but all she can find is kid snacks - pudding, baby carrots and dip, cheese and crackers. She makes up a plate, and he falls on it like he's starving.

"No food down there?" she asks, sitting down beside him, not too close. 

"It's all horrible." He replies around a couple carrots. "Tastes like ash, for the most part. Had to choke some of it down, but tried to avoid it as much as possible. The alcohol was worse. Like toilet water."

"Like perfume?" Disgusting.

"No." He looks at her in slight amusement. "Like _toilet water_."

She shudders. Even more disgusting.

"Why didn't you tell me you were so young when your parents threw you out?" she says.

"I wasn't exactly young." He says. 

"Amenadiel says you were only about sixteen, in human years."

"Well, I suppose, but -"

"And then you spent all that time on this massive throne that was miles high above the landscape, with no one to talk to and nothing to do."

"I did things." Lucifer replies defensively.

"Such as?"

"Well, put down the daily rebellion, tortured a few souls, stopped dust-ups in the Lilim ... that's about it, though." He smiles slightly. "Those last ones were often over me. Sometimes over each other. Dromos isn't really much to look at. Sometimes I'd take a walk around the lake of fire, that was all right."

"All by yourself." She can't even imagine.

"More or less, yeah. Most demons aren't really that fun to be with." He swallows the pudding down in one gulp, just opens the package over his mouth and lets it slide inside. "Unless they want something. I missed real _food_ so much. Or at least food that doesn't taste like ash. Even this pudding tastes like ambrosia. I could do for some of that, but it's a bastard to make. The real stuff, not that awful gelatin salad with fruit bits in, and I don't think I can get some of the things down here. Perhaps Amenadiel's got some."

"I almost punched him last week." Chloe says, getting up to refill Lucifer's water glass.

He chuckles. "Oh, I would have loved to see _that_. Whatever for?"

"I was pissed."

"What'd he do?" Lucifer accepts the glass of water and drinks half of it. "Take a bad picture of the baby?"

"He took you to _Hell_ , Lucifer!" she shouts.

He sets down the drink. "No, he didn't, I went there myself. Wings, remember?"

"Not ... this time. But all those other times! He took you back, or tried to take you back, and you were all alone, and -" She starts crying again, angry tears, and throws her arms around him. "I just _hate_ it! I hate that you were there all by yourself! Your father is an _asshole!_ "

He laughs, and she can feel the laughter through his chest. "I do know that much, darl - er, Chloe."

She looks up at him. "You're also bloody and covered in ash and you smell terrible."

"Not my blood, for the most part." He sighs. "Could do with a shower, though."

"Well, why don't you have one." She shoves him towards the bathroom, mind a whirl of thoughts. She put the dishes in the dishwasher, amused by the sounds of Lucifer's shower singing. Her mother had liked this album - 'Rumors', by Fleetwood Mac - and he had the voice for it. 

_been down one time_  
_been down two times_  
_oooh, never goin' back again_

Well, he seemed to be feeling better. At least a little, anyway.

Maybe she could get a look at those berries now. Hmm.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am an ancient woman and like my ancient music. The song is 'Rudy' and the album is 'Crime of the Century'.

Lucifer adjusted the shower jets again. Perhaps he ought to purchase her a new showerhead. She could use a better one. Yes. Definitely. He turned the heat up a touch and tried to decide which of her shower soaps to use. Probably not that bubble-gum one, that was obviously the urchin's. He opens a few of the others to sniff them.

The door opens. 

"Did you need something?" He asks, still looking through the shower soaps. Dear _dad_ , how did she have so _many_ of the bloody things? There were ten, fifteen, almost twenty bottles here.

"Yes." 

The shower curtain slides to one side, and she steps in.

He drops the bottle of shower soap, and she smiles - her smile is part shy, part daring - and leans down to pick it up.

"Wondered if you wanted any help washing your back." She puts some soap on her hands and carefully runs them across - and down - his chest. It's a pale cream color, and it smells like almonds and roses. 

"I think that's the wrong side." He coughs. "Of me. Not that I'm complaining! Definitely not complaining, but that is absolutely not my back, and I'm sure you know that, and -"

And then the detective stands on her toes and kisses him. He is still for half a moment, and then he responds to her kiss. 

This is the stuff of so many of his fantasies - in his shower, in bed, in the hot tub, on top of that ridiculous throne in Hell = there wasn't much to do up there except wank - and now it's _real_. Her body is soft under his hands. Her lips are like the sweetest wine. 

She is ravishing. And yet, he feels unsure, wrong-footed. 

"Are you sure this is what you want, Chloe?" He murmurs around her lips.

"Yes." she whispers into his mouth.

And what else can he do, if this is what she desires, but drop to his knees on the fish-patterned bath mat and hold her by the hips as he swirls up one thigh and between her sweet folds, let his tongue taste every drop of her, suck on her clit gently as she whines, pants, gets closer to the edge. Use his teeth to nip, ever so slightly. And he feels her come in waves, like sound, like water, like light. 

She pulls him to his feet, and he is astonished by her strength. 

"Let's get you clean first." She murmurs. "Then we can do this in a bed."

He can do nothing except listen. But she washes his hair and his body with nothing but her hands, and it feels glorious - her fingers sinking deep into his skin, massaging his scalp and his hair gently, firmly, and then rinses him off just as the water starts to run cool.

"Steamy in here." She says, looking up at him as they step out.

"That's your fault, I expect." 

She leads him up the stairs and into her room. He is completely without words.

Her bed is unmade, just light blue cotton sheets and a white duvet on top, covered in throw pillows. Dirty laundry is piled in a corner. She doesn't seem to care about it, just pushes him down on the bed and climbs onto his hips.

"What do you want?" She breathes. "Tell me what _you_ desire, Lucifer Morningstar." 

He stares up into her eyes. "You. I desire you, Chloe Decker."

The feeling of her sinking down on his cock is glorious. He's clean, he assures her, and not even sure he can get her pregnant in the first place, but she's protected against that, she says, and the feeling of her - the silky-wet tightness of her - is almost enough to make him come undone at once. He can't stop looking at her - the glowing green-blue of her eyes, the highlights of her hair in the mid-summer sun through the window, how it tumbles, damp around her shoulders, and curls ever-so-slightly as it dries; how beautiful she truly is. 

And he can't stop touching her. It's amazing not only to touch, but to be touched in return. To be touched _back_. His former lovers only ever touched him to get something, to get off.

He hadn't been touched like this in so long. Perhaps not since before the Rebellion and the Fall. There had been Eve, but she wasn't ... it wasn't really, not quite -

He felt hands on his face, gentle, soft. "You're crying."

"Nonsense."

"It's all right." She looks down at him, and her expression is tender. "I understand. I won't tell anyone."

The tears trickle down one cheekbone, and then the other. She kisses them away.

They go back to work a week later.

It is different, he notices. She touches him more at the office - not sexually, just little touches, light, on the shoulder or the back, a hand on his under the table. A stroke of his shoulder. 

He has no idea what to make of this, except that he _enjoys_ it. 

So he goes to see Linda while the detecti- while _Chloe_ is doing paperwork. 

"I heard you came back." Linda says as she opens her office door. The smaller urchin is making its way around on its backside, making little noises.

He nods. "I need your help with something."

"I thought you weren't doing therapy anymore?"

"Well, just as a friend, then, we're friends, right?" He sits down on the sofa. The little urchin finds his legs curious toys and starts thinking it can climb on him. 

"Sure." She shrugs. "Fine. What's the problem?"

"Chloe keeps touching me. Not in a sexy way, just ... like a person." He tries to get the climbing little beast off of his suit pants. "But I like it, and that's very odd."

"All right. Since I'm not your psychiatrist, I'll just tell you what I think."

"Excellent! We should have done this ages ago!"

"Have you heard the expression 'touch-starved'?"

"No."

"Right. If you don't have any meaningful contact with people, real contact - and I don't mean sexual contact, I mean contact with friends or family, that sort of contact - you can become starved for touch. Amenadiel says your father was ... absent."

Lucifer snorts. "Try nonexistent."

"And your mother was trying to get his attention. You mostly argued with your siblings or physically fought with them. Hell was a severe environment where you had no real peers around you except Maze, and she's, well ... Maze."

He nods.

"So you're touch-starved."

"Right." He leans over, elbows on his knees. "How do I _fix_ this?"

"Just give it time. It will fix itself. Spend some time with friends, with family." She smiles. "Try picking up Charlie."

"Is it clean?"

Linda sighs. "Yes. Just pick him up."

He picks it up. "Hello. You probably have no memory of me at all."

"Gmahbahneh." Charlie says.

"No, I don't have any milk, you'll have to talk to your mother for that. Chest is too flat, no mammaries here."

"You can _talk to him_?" Linda breathes.

"'Course I can." Lucifer shrugs. "Gift of tongues. One of the last things Dad gave me before I got tossed out."

Lucifer went back to the station, trying to find the detect-Chloe, but she wasn't there.

"She's picking up some old paperwork at one of the warehouses. Said for you to meet her at her place."

Lucifer turns and smiles. "Daniel. Good to see you again."

Daniel slaps him on the back, just below his wings. "Why didn't you say anything, man?" he says softly.

"About ... what, exactly?"

"About your father kicking you out when you were so young."

"I ... don't really like to talk about it." 

He nods. "I get it, I get it. But Chloe told me while you were out. Just me, not anybody else. She thought I should know because of Trixie. I'm not telling anybody, it's just ... I never knew you suffered like that. Sounds like hell."

"Oh, it was."

Chloe found Lucifer at Lux later that afternoon, his fingers flowing across the keyboard. 

_Rudy's on a train to nowhere  
Halfway down the line  
He don't wanna get there  
But he needs time_

_He ain't domesticated  
Or well educated  
After all these hours he's wasted  
Still he needs time _

She sits down on the bench beside him. "Don't know that one."

"Not one of your nineties jams at all. Good album, though, and I approve of the cover art." 

She smiles and listens to the music, gently rubbing his lower back. "Want to come back home with me? Trixie would love to see you, she's been asking about you for the whole time you were gone."

"Really?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Absolutely! She thinks you're fantastic."

How peculiar. But Doctor Linda seemed to think he should spend time with friends, and Trixie considered herself his friend, so he might as well.


	3. Chapter 3

"Luciferrr!" Trixie tackled Lucifer around the knees. "Where did you go? Did you bring me something? I'm so glad you came back!" 

"I had a bit of a work trip." He smiles down at Trixie. "My father wanted me to do something. I couldn't bring you anything, but it's very boring, where I went, and no gift shops."

"No _stores_?"

"Absolutely nothing, child. Such an awful place it was." 

"What are we having for dinner, mom?" Trixie still hadn't detached herself from Lucifer's knees. He reached down and patted her on the shoulder. That seemed to ... do nothing. She was still there. 

"Well, Lucifer brought us Italian. And for dessert, gelato."

"Strawberry?"

"Strawberry _and_ hazelnut, spawn." 

"I'll go wash my hands!" Trixie runs to wash up.

"How come I've never met your family?"

They were sitting on the sofa after dinner, just sitting. Chloe was gently massaging one of his hands, and some ridiculous program was on the television he couldn't keep track of. It was ... nice. 

"Well, most of them don't talk to me. Amenadiel is the only one who does right now."

"You have a lot of brothers and sisters?"

"Many." He sighs, looking at their joined hands. "I had to kill one of them before he killed you."

 _"What?"_ She blinks, having no memory of this. 

"Remember that car accident, with the dog?"

"Uh ... yeah."

"Well, my brother's talent was for patterns, just as mine is for desires. And well ..." He keeps looking at the sofa and her hand, not her face. "He was going to kill you, and he was trying to kill me, so I killed him."

She remembers how he looked the week after. Disheveled, drunk, high, rumpled. Like he'd just gotten out of a party. Like a homeless magician.

_Like he was trying, desperately, to forget something._

"Why didn't you tell me your brother died?" Chloe murmurs.

"Well, you had work." He replies, still looking at their hands. 

"I would have been there for you." _Especially knowing your brother was trying to kill you. What the hell was going on with this family?_ "What about any of your other siblings? Do you talk to them?"

"Well, there's always Azrael. You could meet her next time she's in town. She's not bad." He smiles. "She said I was her favorite brother."

"I can absolutely see how you could be someone's favorite brother. What did you two do, while growing up?"

"Mostly just listened to her complain. She was younger than me, one of the youngest, and she never really liked how things went up there. My father was always working, and mum was always trying to get his attention away from his project."

"So ... your parents didn't pay any attention to you either?"

He snorted. "Dad spent most of our lives up in the Silver City tinkering with a little project called Earth. Never satisfied with it. Mum tried to destroy it - you know, floods, plagues, rains of frogs, that sort of thing - but it was surprisingly resilient. Once that one was done he went on to other ones, but he's always been quite fond of this one. As much as you can say he's fond of anything. I suppose you never forget your first."

Chloe splutters. "I bet you never thought you'd say _that_ about your dad."

"Ugh, I know. Ought to wash my mouth out with soap. But yes, I'll get in touch with Azrael if you want to meet her next time she's in town. I don't know when that'll be, she travels about a lot for work."

"What does she do?"

"Oh, she's the Angel of Death."

Chloe blinks. "She's ... the angel of death. What, no pale horse?"

"Never bothered with horses." Lucifer shrugs. "She doesn't really care for them. Azrael's more of a city girl."


	4. Chapter 4

Chloe paced around the penthouse, waiting, fidgeting with her jeans and shirt. "Are you sure she's coming?" She'd wondered about what to wear when meeting Lucifer's sister, but he'd described her as a bit of a nerd - well, actually he'd said 'more of a nerd than Miss Lopez' and assured her just jeans and a blue shirt should be fine.

"She'll be here." Lucifer poured two Scotches.

Then, a rustle of wings on the balcony. She turns to look.

A woman with light brown skin and short hair, cut just below the ears, was folding her wings in. She had some kind of product on her eyes, and was wearing a long dark robe clasped to the front with some kind ... of brooch.

"Hey, ya doofus." She walks past Chloe and slings her arm around Lucifer's shoulders. "Had to come and see how _whipped_ you are these days."

"I am not - I am not _whipped._ " 

Azrael winks at Chloe. "Suuuure, big bro." 

Chloe laughs behind her hand. She can see the sibling resemblance _here_ , definitely. Dan was the same way with his brothers and sisters.

"Remember that time we pranked Amenadiel and tied all of his robes together?" Azrael laughs. "That was so much fun, and he made that _hilarous_ angry face. Couldn't get any of your knots untied because whenever he pulled them they just got tighter and he had to cut them all up."

"I have a picture!" Lucifer says, getting his phone out. "I got a picture of that angry face!" He scrolls through his photos and passes his phone over. 

"That is the _exact one._ It's like -" And she does a remarkably good imitation of Amenadiel's angry face. Chloe cracks up.

"Well, anyway, I gotta jet." Azrael finishes her drink. "You know, Angel of Death's work is never done, all that." She hugs Chloe and whispers in her ear. "Take care of him, please? He needs someone like you."

She nods and smiles as she hugs back.

Then Azrael folds out her wings and moves toward her brother. "Come here, dork." She enfolds him in feathers, and after a long moment, he does the same to her.

Chloe remembers something - a gunfight, Pierce shooting. Lucifer screaming 'no'.

She had blacked out. All she remembers after that was whiteness, until she woke up on a roof. 

On a _roof_.

The brilliant whiteness of those wings. They seem to glow from the inside, a preternatural glimmer. A _divine_ glimmer. She remembers them from when he left, too, through her tears.

"Smell ya later, kids!" Azrael flies off.

When she turns around again, his wings are gone. 

"Did she just say _smell ya later_?" Chloe blurts.

"She does that." He pours himself another drink.

"Looked like a nice hug." she murmurs. "If that's what it was."

He nods, very slightly. "Yeah."

"Who does that? Family, friends?"

"Family mostly. Mates." He doesn't look at her, just stares into the tawny depths of his glass of Scotch. "Partners."

 _Mates. Partners._

It had been right in front of her. 

She puts her arm around his shoulders. Maybe that was good enough. He seems to relax a little, anyway. 

They were in Linda's sunny backyard the next day. Trixie was running around with a gymnastics ribbon that she'd gotten from Ella, and Amenadiel had taken Charlie for a fly around the neighborhood. Lucifer had gone with them (reluctantly). 

"Did you know that Lucifer was pretty much neglected by his parents?" Chloe murmurs, straightening her tank top.

"He hasn't really spoken about their relationship. Unless you count ranting and raving about his father."

Chloe sighs. "Yeah. His father was ... well, we can call it tinkering, and his mother was trying to, well, wreck the project he was tinkering on, and there was, well, _disorder_. But I did meet his sister."

"You did?" Linda smiles. "Was she nice?"

"She was nice. Well, angel of death, but really nice. And she called Lucifer a dork, so."

Linda laughs as she hears the story. 

There's a flutter of wings as Lucifer lands behind her. "I'm back."

"Did the baby get get drool on you?" She looks at him upside down. He's still adorable, even when he's cranky and covered in baby spit. "Oooh, you're got cookie all over you, too."

 _"The baby's cookie._ " Lucifer sighs. "And I don't think you can get this off without using a miracle. Another Armani ruined." He huffs off into the house, already pulling out his phone.

Amenadiel lands, holding Charlie on one hip. "Where did Lucifer go?" 

"Off to change his clothes, I think." Chloe replies. "Something about a teething cookie? Does he even own casual clothes?"

"Doesn't wear them." Amenadiel sighs. "I can sort of understand that. I mean, the robes in the Silver City weren't especially comfortable, and you know he doesn't wear anything under them."

"So he goes for comfort." Linda nods thoughtfully. "How was your flight?"

"Oh, it was fun." Amenadiel smiles at his son. "It was really fun. It was a little trouble trying to get Lucifer to hold Charlie, he was a bit awkward about it, but Charlie started talking to Lucifer after a while, and it was really cute, their conversation. He kept trying to give the cookie to Lucifer."

"Dad, tell me you haven't given him another one of those blasted things." Lucifer says, reappearing from the house. "I only had them deliver one suit. At least the detect- Chloe's spawn is mostly out of that messy and sticky stage. Although she does have grass stains all over her clothing now." 

"It's fine, Luci." Amenadiel laughs. "She's just _playing_. She's having fun. Laundry will get out the grass stains."

"Your sister visited." Linda says. "Why don't you tell us about that?"

"Who visited?" Amenadiel asks curiously.

"Azrael. Chloe wanted to meet her."

"She was nice." Chloe smiles, scratching an itch on her left shoulder. "Although she did say he was whipped."

"I am _not_ whipped." Lucifer says irritably.

Amenadiel winks at Chloe and mouths the word 'whipped' at her.

Back at the precinct on Monday, Chloe can't get her shoulders to quit itching. "Ella, do you have any aloe gel?"

"Nope, sorry, girl." She looks up from her microscope. "You haven't told me any of the deets about Lucifer yet. You guys are _together_ now, right?"

She smiles. "Well, yeah, I guess we are."

The bouncy scientist hugs her tightly enough that her ribs almost crack. "Oh. My. God. Is it serious?"

"I'd say so, yeah. I met his sister last week."

"Was she nice? Was she cool?"

"She was really cool, actually." Chloe smiles, remembering their conversation. "You know, typical little sister sort of thing. They used to prank Amenadiel a lot."

"Lucifer's the middle child?"

"You know, I don't know." Chloe muses. "I'll have to ask. He has a fairly big family."

"Maybe she can come to one of our Tribe Nights." Ella says gleefully. "When Maze gets back from bounty hunting. That would be _really_ awesome."

Later that evening, her shoulders were _still_ itchy. "Am I peeling?"

"What, like a banana?" Lucifer murmurs into her neck.

"No, the skin on my _shoulders_. Did I sunburn them? At Linda's?"

"They are the exact shade they always were." He drops kisses across her back. "No missing skin, no burns."

"Well, they are _itching_ like crazy."

He cuddles her close and she falls asleep, eventually, in his arms.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer and Charlie have an interesting conversation. Also, wings.

The next morning she woke up surrounded by a rose-colored veil.

"Lucifer, hey." she mutters, reaching up to swipe away at it. "What _is_ that?"

It was _feathery._

She sat up.

The ... pink ... feathery wings ... were still around her.

"I was just taking the spawn to school and ... what in the Hell? Where in Dad's name did _those_ come from?" 

"I don't know." Chloe blurts. "I ... just woke up like that. Maybe I should ... take the day off?"

"Yeah." He nods, sinking down on the end of the bed. "You probably should."

"I wouldn't be able to believe it." Lucifer says. "Except for these feathers in the bed." He holds one out. It's pink, but not bright pink - more of the color of a flower. A rose. They were very bright pink at one end, the color of Trixie's favorite pink marker, and lighter at the tips.

"Yours are white." Chloe says numbly.

He nods. "I called Amenadiel. I thought he might have ... you know, thoughts, on the situation."

 _On my wings._

Lucifer hands her his flask. She downs a gulp, grateful for the burn. She doesn't normally drink at this hour, but if there ever was a time to do so, it was probably now.

"How am I going to put these things away?" she blurts. "Am I going to have to get all new clothes? This is _weird_."

"In answer to your second question, no. They exist on another plane, and they just go right through your clothing. Yes, it _is_ weird, I absolutely agree about that." 

Linda and Amenadiel rush up the stairs.

"We came as soon as we could - _holy shit, Luci!_ " Amenadiel says, setting his son on the floor. 

"Well, don't look at me!" Lucifer says. "I was just as surprised as you were! I had nothing to do with this, it's more your fault than mine, or should I say more _dad's_ bloody fault."

"What the _hell_?" Linda comes over and touches one of the feathers. "These are real, Chloe, they're real wings."

"I just woke up like this." Chloe says numbly. 

Charlie starts gabbling at Lucifer, scooting over to his uncle.

"Wait." Chloe pauses. "What do you mean, it's _his fault_?"

"I suppose I should explain." Amenadiel sits down on the bed.

Lucifer walks back and forth across the room, attempting to come to terms with the situation, and failing utterly and completely.

The _detecti_ \- no, _Chloe_ \- had bloody wings. _Pink_ bloody wings. 

And that wretched baby can't quit _babbling_ , and now it was _following him_. He picked it up after he nearly stepped on the damned thing. At least this time it wasn't covered in slimy crumbs, although it did try to maintain some sort of chokehold on his neck. Perhaps Maze had taught it some of her moves before she went off hunting bounties. 

_Pretty. Pretty. Pretty._ It points at Chloe. _Pretty birdie_.

"Not a bird." He mutters into the baby's shoulder. 

_Like daddy-birdie._

"Not like - oh, never mind, why am I trying to explain this to _you_? Completely different parts, for one thing. Birds have cloacas and women have - oh, _dad_ , I thought my first fall was bad, now I'm trying to explain sex to an _infant_." 

_Your birdie?_

He almost drops the baby. He would have, except that the little bugger still has a death grip on his neck.

"Are you all right?" Linda comes over to him.

He can't say anything. He's too busy trying not to choke. 

"Charlie, come see mama." 

Linda manages to trigger the baby's release command. Lucifer takes a long drink. A very long drink. He drains the flask dry.

There is _not enough alcohol_ here for this situation.

There may not be enough alcohol at _Lux_ for this situation.

"I need to take a walk." He says hoarsely. 

Maybe all the way to _Sacramento_.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is 'Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)', which is the only good song Wings ever did. Fight me.

Amenadiel said that Chloe couldn't fly yet, as she didn't have the strength in the associated muscles. She was still trying to get her head around the fact that her whole existence was a _miracle_.

And then when she looked up, Lucifer was gone.

"He said he had to take a walk." Linda said, playing with Charlie on the floor. 

"He's probably playing his piano, if I had to guess." Amenadiel sighs. "And drinking."

"Don't suppose you could help me ... put these away?" Chloe gestured at her outstretched wings. "I think I have to talk to him."

"Of course." Amenadiel nods. "It may hurt a little."

"It's okay." Chloe grits her teeth. "Probably not worse than getting shot in the stomach."

Amenadiel took one of her wings with both hands and gently folded it, and it collapsed into her shoulder. The other one did the same at the same time. 

"That is _so cool._ " Linda breathes.

"Don't suppose you could give me a ride to Lux?" Chloe says. 

"Of course." Linda pats her shoulder. "And I'll give Dan a call and get him to pick up Trixie. You have _far too much_ to deal with right now."

It was difficult to transpose this particular song, but he hadn't spent all this time playing for nothing.

_the grand old painter died last night  
his paintings on the wall  
before he left, he bade us well  
and said goodnight to us all_

_drink to me, drink to my health  
you know I can't drink any more_

He takes another swig of absinthe. Straight from the bottle this time. Bitter, but nothing for it really. He'd forgone the sugar cubes to get straight to the point.

"You're going to have to start playing songs I actually know." 

Lucifer sighs. "Don't tell me Amenadiel let you _fly_ here."

"Of course not." Chloe smiles. "They gave me a ride. In the car."

"I just ... I need to think."

"You're telling me. I just found out I'm a miracle and I have _wings_."

"I just had a long chat with -"

"With who?" Chloe looks at him, her head tilted sideways. "You were ... just holding the baby, from what I could see."

He nods, one quick jerk of the head.

"You can ... talk to the baby."

"I can. The gift of tongues. I can speak any language."

"Even _baby_?" 

"Baby is pretty simple." He shrugs. "Babies talk about milk a lot. And breasts a lot. Actually, they're not too dissimilar to some men I know. At Charlie's age they start talking about the things around them. He likes the foot rattle things you bought him, and that ribbon Trixie has, but they don't have a lot of color names. It starts with just 'bright' and 'not-bright'. He calls Linda 'Smells-Like-Milk'."

"That's really strange. But then, so is my life at the moment." She keeps thinking, and he goes back to the piano and goes on playing.

She's half asleep that evening, spooned up against his warm body in the penthouse, when she realizes she never _asked_ him what he and the baby talked about.

"Hey, man!" Ella launches herself at Lucifer with the speed of a champagne cork flying out of the bottle and hugs him. "How's it goin'? You help Decker with that _itch_ she had?" She winks. 

"She told you?"

"I have eyes, dude, and you are so _into_ her. Plus she's into you, totally! She told me you introduced her to your sister, right? That's cool! If you're getting family involved, gotta be real, right?" 

"You think so?" He sits down on one of the tables. "I ... don't have a good relationship with my parents. Don't speak to my father, and my mother ... I'm never going to see her again."

"Oh, _man_ , that totally blows. What happen, you get kicked outta the house?"

He nods. True more or less.

"See, that just _sucks_. I don't believe in that stuff. I mean, family is so important to me, right? And if you don't have one, you can always make your own! Store-bought family - totally fine!"

"I don't ..."

"You know, like, I'm Chloe's sister, even though I'm not _really_ her sister? And you can be my bro, even though we're not really bros?"

"So you just ... make it up as you go." Lucifer says thoughtfully.

"Yeah! Like that."

"Lucifer!" 

"It's ya girl." Ella winks again, and shoves him out the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Comic book readers will recognize the next brother. :) And of course, the song is by Simon and Garfunkel.

Chloe staggers into her apartment, exhausted. The wings, and the extra exercise she was doing trying to develop the muscles she didn't even remember having there were so tiring to work with. She didn't want to really ask Lucifer about it, because in the past his wings had been a serious sore point, a gift from his father, and she doesn't want to deal with all that angst again. 

There is someone sitting on her sofa. A tall man, with long blond hair, wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt and grey slacks.

She's already got her gun out when the man turns around and hands her a neatly written note on a notepad.

_Hello, Ms. Decker,_

_My name is Duma. I am one of Lucifer's brothers. It's nice to meet you. Azrael was right, she said you're beautiful. I've been curious for some time as to what's been keeping my wayward brother under control._

"You mean whipped, right?"

He shrugs, grinning, and takes his notepad back. _Potato, patato._

Chloe smiles. She likes this brother. 

Trixie runs in. "Mommy! Who's this?"

Duma gets up and kneels in front of Trixie. He picks up his pad. _Hello, Beatrice. I'm Duma. I'm Lucifer's brother._

She reads it carefully. "Can't you talk?"

He shakes his head.

"'kay. But you can hear me, right?"

A thumbs-up.

"Do you like chocolate cake?"

_I love chocolate cake._

"Mom?" Trixie gives her puppy-dog eyes. "Can we pleeeease have some?"

"All right." Chloe sighs. "But only a little piece, and only because we have a guest."

"Your brother came to visit me this afternoon." 

Lucifer looks over at the elevator. "Amenadiel came to see you? What, more about the wings?" He hopes it wasn't about the wings. He's really trying to forget about the bloody wings. If it hadn't been for the feathers, he would totally have forgotten about the wings. 

"Not Amenadiel. Duma."

"Oh, _Duma._ " Lucifer grins, and starts playing _The Sound of Silence_. "He's usually busy in the library in the Silver City. What did he want?" 

"He's got quite the sweet tooth, incidentally. Worse than Trixie's." She sits down on the piano bench beside him and leans into his shoulder.

"How is that even possible?" Lucifer looks astonished, and she laughs.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maze comes back home. (Incidentally, Chloe's wings are a roseate spoonbill's wings.)

Maze gets home the following night. She just looks at Decker and smirks. "So, how's the sex?"

"Good." 

"Gotta be better than _good_ , Decker. On a bad day he's better than _good_." She takes a bottle of gin out of her suitcase and drinks from it.

"I have wings now." Chloe says as Maze heads into her room.

The demon turns around. "Uh ... what the fuck?"

Chloe folds them out like Amenadiel showed her how to do. 

"Holy _shit_ , Decker! Does he know -"

"Yeah, he knows. They appeared in his bed."

"Oooh." Maze says. "Kinky."

"No, we were _asleep_ , Maze, and they just ... showed up. In the middle of the night."

"In the middle of the night?" Maze sits down on the sofa. 

"Yeah, I woke up with them." Chloe puts the wings back. 

"Nice feathers, I gotta say. Saw a bird once on a job in Florida that looked like that." Maze sips from her gin again. "What does he think about it?"

"Well, he's not saying much."

The demon sets down the gin bottle and takes out a dagger, playing with it. "Never does. At his piano a lot?"

"Yeah. Wings are kind of a big issue." She sighs. 

"Yeah, he cut his off. Big act of rebellion after he Fell. Was cutting them off every morning for a while after they grew back."

"Wait." Chloe blinks. "I know he cut them off. But they grew _back_?"

"Oh yeah. Musta cut them off twenty, thirty, forty times in a row."

"Maze, that's ... self-mutilation." She remembers Lucifer saying _I hate myself_. Now the whole thing makes even more sense to her. "When did this _start_?"

"Uh ... just after his mother left, I think. When he was in the desert."

 _When he was in the desert_.

She remembers that. The desert. How he was ranting about his angel wings, playing depressing songs on the piano. 

But _self-mutilation_?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer talks to Eve, and Lucifer talks to Chloe, at different times, about different things.

Chloe storms into the penthouse. "Why did you cut off your angel wings?"

"What?" Lucifer looks around frantically. "I didn't! I still have them! Look!" He extends them, and there they are, white and pearlescent, slightly glowing in the dim light of the evening.

"I don't mean now." She stomps over to him. "I meant _before _, you _idiot!___

__"Oh." Lucifer sighs, folding the wings back in and sinking down on the leather sofa. "Then, you mean."_ _

__"Yes, I mean _then_. Maze said you cut them off more than _forty times_! Why did you _do that?_ "_ _

__"Difficult to explain."_ _

__"Well, _try_."_ _

__Lucifer stares at the ceiling in thought. "I didn't want them anymore. I didn't think of myself as that way anymore. I mean, those were ... those were _Samael's_ wings. And I'm not him anymore. I didn't want to be him, either."_ _

__"So ... it was kind of like you were ... feeling ... you were in the wrong body. Like a transgendered person." Chloe says slowly._ _

__"Exactly." Lucifer nods. "But they kept growing back, over and over again. It was pointless, so I just stopped doing it."_ _

__"Well ... don't start doing it again."_ _

__Lucifer smiles at her. "All right. I won't."_ _

__"You promise?"_ _

__He nods._ _

__

__The next afternoon, Lucifer was noodling at his piano when the elevator bell rang. He turned to see Eve's face._ _

__"Did you want something?" He asks, curious._ _

__"Just to talk. Maze said you were back, that's all." she shrugs._ _

__He sighs and makes her an appletini. "Sure. Go ahead, talk."_ _

__"She told me about Chloe's wings." Eve accepts the drink and sips it._ _

__Lucifer sighs. "Why is _everyone_ on about the bloody _wings_ all the time?"_ _

__"It's interesting, Luce." Eve shrugs, smiling over her drink glass. "It's not every day that a human just turns up with pink wings."_ _

__"Even the _baby_ wouldn't shut up about the damn things."_ _

__"Which baby? Amenadiel's?"_ _

__He nods, looking into his Scotch._ _

__"I'd almost forgotten how you used to talk to Abel." Eve smiles gently. "It was so sweet."_ _

__"I'm the Devil. I don't do -"_ _

__"Luce, stop that." Eve gives him a cross look. "Do you love her?"_ _

__Lucifer stares at the ceiling again. "The baby thought she was a bird."_ _

__"Mmmm."_ _

__There was a long pause._ _

__"He asked if she was my bird." he whispers._ _

__Eve smiles again over her appletini and gives him her slice of apple garnish._ _

__"What's that for?" Lucifer frowns at her._ _

__"Luck. Courage. Knowledge. Whatever you decide it's for." She kisses him on the end of the nose, drains her drink, sets the glass down and leaves._ _


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie wants to know about stars.

The next afternoon, Lucifer was at the piano in his loft again playing an utterly ridiculous love song he refuses to admit to knowing. (Fill in your favorite here, but I had 'Silly Love Songs' by Wings in mind.)

Then the elevator opens and he almost slams the piano lid shut on his hands.

"Luciferrr!" Trixie runs across the room.

"Oh, it's you, urchin." He sighs, sliding over on the piano bench so she can sit down. 

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Not a lot." he replies honestly. "Why are you here? Did you use your mother's Uber account again?"

"Yup! I thought you needed a friend, and I haven't seen you in a long time." She hugs him around the waist. "Did you know mommy has pink _wings_ now? I saw them when she was sleeping! It's so cool, she's like an angel or a really big bird! And _pink_ , too. Do you think they're pink because she's a girl, or for some other reason?"

"Probably some other reason." Lucifer says honestly. "None of my sisters have pink wings."

"You have _sisters_? Wow! How many sisters do you have?"

"Many. More brothers than sisters, though."

"I know Amenadiel and Duma. Duma likes chocolate cake." Trixie nods importantly.

"Yes, I know. He's always liked sweets. Used to raid the dessert pantry back home, you know, when Mum wasn't looking. Which was most of the time, so I should really say when Amenadiel wasn't looking. Then Amenadiel would make this face -" Lucifer did a fair imitation of it, and Trixie giggles - and then Duma would run off with a trail of crumbs behind him."

"What else did you do when you were kids?"

"Oh ... we fought a lot, urchin. I used to play jokes on my brothers, pranks. Usually Amenadiel, because he made that ridiculous face. And I had work to do."

"Like chores and stuff? Mommy makes me clean my room."

"Similar, yes. I made stars. That was my job for a long time."

" _Cool_." Trixie looks at him in awe. "That's really awesome. Which ones?"

He gets a large astronomy book from the shelf. "It's not the same as in real life, but I can show you some of them in here."

Chloe parked her car in the parking garage below Lux, sighing as she tossed her keys to the attendant on duty.

At least Trixie had picked a Friday night to run off this time. She had no idea why her daughter _did_ this, but at least she usually went to the same place. She just wound her way through the usual Friday night crowd, noticing with half her mind that Lucifer wasn't at the piano, and over to the elevator upstairs.

"-that one's supposed to blow up about thirty years from now, I think."

"Cool! What happens when a star blows up?" Chloe spots Lucifer and her daughter, lying in the middle of the floor, heads bent over an astronomy book.

"Well, it gets much larger and then it collapses, and it makes something scientists call a black hole. There's a lot of messing about with time in there, because as you get closer to the black hole time gets slower and slower."

"That's _really_ weird. What happens when a black hole blows up?"

"Well, then it makes something called a white hole, urchin, which is ... very complicated for a child of your age that doesn't yet understand higher mathematics." 

"Do you have any pictures of black holes?"

"It's pretty boring taking pictures of those, and difficult, because of that thing where time gets really slow."

Trixie nods. "Right, and I guess they'd be black like space."

"Exactly." Lucifer looks up. "Detective!"

"You came all this way to learn about _stars_?" Chloe nudges her daughter. 

"Well, of course she did." Lucifer shrugs. "She wanted an expert opinion."

"I wanted to see Lucifer." Trixie smiles up at her mother, sticking her tongue out through a gap in her teeth. "He's my friend. Do you have any pictures of Mars?"

"Lots of those." He turns to a different chapter of the book. "There you are, Madame Future President."

Chloe sits down across from them and watches. He's so _gentle_ with Trixie, and it's ... disorienting. As much as he blusters about not liking children, he seems to have made an exception for her. He answers her questions truthfully, and when he can't he explains why he can't. Usually because a subject is too advanced for her, or he just doesn't know something. It's strange, but it's nice, too. 

It's nice that Trixie thinks of him as a friend. It seems to be reciprocated, in his own ... Lucifer-type way. 

Now she's asking him about all the dust on Mars and how she can get it to not swirl around for her swearing-in ceremony. He's talking about options. Chloe smiles to herself.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer realizes what the extent of his problem is. Or maybe it's the vapors. It's probably the vapors. Or bad sushi. Amenadiel gloats. Someone else comes down to visit and speak with Chloe.

Trixie begs him enough, and they order a pizza, and they end up having a sleepover in the penthouse.

"Are you all right?" she asks Lucifer in a soft voice, combing her hands through his soft curls.

"Mmmm. I feel very strange, though." Lucifer says softly. "it's a good strange, but it's still so strange."

"What does it feel like?"

"It's like ... I'm floating. Like a really good high, almost, but I haven't drunk anything stronger than a glass of bourbon."

She smiles gently, stroking his cheek. "Do you like it?"

"It's wonderful ... but it hurts my heart. All at the same time. It's a very confusing feeling."

"What happens if you kiss me?"

Lucifer leans in and kisses her lips gently. "It's ... it's getting worse. But I like it. I _want_ it. It's like a craving, but not one of the usual ones for food or drink or sex."

Chloe smiles at him, and her hands flow over his skin for a long while, over flat planes and curves, the curls of his hair. It's like she knows more about his own desires than he does sometimes. 

The following day makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. He feels like a pathetic little child, trying to win his mother's acceptance. And that won't fucking do at all. So he goes to yell at Amenadiel instead, because that's always good for getting rid of ten minutes of irritation.

Amenadiel is teaching Charlie to climb the front stairs. Lucifer comes inside and nearly trips over the little blighter.

"Wuci, Wuci." Charlie waves his hands in the air.

"Isn't that adorable? He can say your name now." Amenadiel says.

"Well, he always could, you just couldn't understand him before." He picks up the child - mainly to move him, honestly - and goes over to the couch to sit down.

"Where birdie birdie?" The baby asks.

"Chloe isn't here." He sets Charlie down on the floor. "Go terrorize your father."

"He was asking about Chloe?" Amenadiel asks. 

"Yes, which is why I'm here. Well, I was hoping to run into Linda, but I suppose you'll have to do if I can imagine the glasses. Maybe if you make that cross look it might help. Put on the dress, too."

"Luci ... what's happened?"

"Nothing! Nothing has happened. Nothing. Well. Something that's probably nothing. Probably ate some bad sushi or something."

"Luci..."

"Fine, you're a bloody menace, you are." He frowns at his brother. "It's a sort of floaty-but-painful feeling all at the same time. Kind of a combination of ecstasy and acid reflux."

Amenadiel is grinning now, a smile so wide it may split his face open, and Lucifer knows that whatever this is, it is going to be very bad, and he is never going to be able to live it down for the rest of his immortal life.

"You can stop doing _that_ any time now, you know."

"Nope." He grins. "You're in love. You are head-over-heels in love with Chloe Decker."

"This can't be _love_. It has to be something else."

"Like what?"

"Well, I don't know, the vapors or something. It's not like Raphael keeps my appointments."

"Well, I'll call her." Amenadiel smiles to himself. "I will call her here. Because I _have_ to see this."

Raphael shows up twenty minutes later, her hair back a loose grey-tipped red braid and her blue-heron's wings folded back beneath her traditional white coat. She is wearing teddybear scrubs under the coat. 

"Well, since I was here, I thought I'd take a peek at the sweetest little Nephilim I've seen since before the Ark." She smiles and picks Charlie up. "Oh, aren't you a strong one! And he's got two teeth coming in there on the bottom, Meni, he'll be chewing on everything."

"The little twerp already destroyed one of my suits." Lucifer mutters. 

"Hush yourself, Luci darling, I will get to you in a moment. Babies before beauty. Such a good boy you are! Strong, you're feeding him all the right things. Wonderful job." She hands Charlie back to Amenadiel. "Now, you, little brother, what have you done with yourself this time?"

Amenadiel explains the whole situation, and Lucifer chimes in when needed. About Chloe. About the wings. About Lucifer's vulnerability. About the miracle. About this ... acid-reflux-floatiness that's probably the vapors or bad sushi.

Raphael hmmmms to herself. "So how do you feel now?"

"Like I'm being analyzed by a doctor who is also my older sister."

"And how did you feel when you were in Hell?"

"It was Hell, Raph. It was horrible, we stake our reputation on horribleness."

"That's not an answer."

"This isn't going to end until one of us dies, right?" Lucifer sighs.

"Nope. So buckle in, we'll be here for a while."

"The days were ... well, they were long. But it's like they were _longer_ because she wasn't there." He stares into the middle distance. "I was so alone down there, and I realized that before, I'd never really realized I had someone to really miss. Friends to miss. People that cared. Before it was just family that wanted me to do my job. But now, people actually missed me. They knew who I was. And they still missed me. They cared."

"Luci." Raphael wraps her wings around her brother. "I never knew you felt like that. I know we weren't - we weren't close, before, but do you mind if I meet this woman? She seems extraordinary. Duma and Azrael definitely say so, anyway. And ... if it's worth anything, I am sorry."

He nods, coughs slightly. "Well, in for a penny and all that. What the hell."

Chloe was at the station when Lucifer shows up about an hour and a half late.

"Sorry, was held up, had a combination family visit and medical thing." He came in with her favorite coffee and a lemon bar. "Raph, this is Chloe Decker; Chloe, this is my sister Raphael. She's sort of the family doctor. Came down to see Charlie, had her take a look at me as well."

"Was there something wrong?" Chloe asks, concerned. "You _idiot_ , if there's something wrong with you, I want to know!" She thwaps him with a folder.

"No, no, there's nothing physically wrong with my idiot brother." Raphael coughs with amusement into her chocolate croissant. "Nothing at all, actually. These are delightful, Luci, can you get me another one of these?"

Lucifer looks at his sister sternly. 

"What?" She says with her mouth full. "I'm going to sit here with the detective and eat my croissant."

Raph watches him leave carefully. "All right - can I call you Chloe?"

"You can."

"Listen. I don't have much time to tell you this. My idiot brother is completely in love with you and it'll take him forever to figure that out. Emotional maturity was not really big in hell."

"I sort of figured that out." Chloe says, rolling her eyes.

"Good, okay. So he's terrified of saying the words because his desire powers don't work on you, you should say 'I love you' first. If you do, I mean. Don't lie, damn it. And if you run into any trouble, call me."

"How do I call you? Do you have a phone?"

"No, no." Raphael shakes her head. "Just fold your hands and pray. Think my name, and what's happening. I'll show up. Just ... don't do it during any intimate moments or anything. I don't want to see my little brother naked in anything other than a strictly medical capacity, thanks."

"That's far more than I needed to know." Chloe says, laughing. "Although there was one thing. Was he the middle child?"

"Indeed, he was." Raphael looked at Chloe's lemon bar. "Can I try a piece of that? I've never had that sort of pastry before."

"Sure." Chloe smiles, and breaks off a piece. "What did you have in the Silver City?"

"Oh, usually ambrosia. We had that a lot, but there are a lot of ways you can prepare ambrosia. I like Earth desserts though, I should come down more to get them. Not as much as Duma does, though, he just adores them. Such a passion for sweets. Thank goodness for that angelic metabolism." she laughs.

"It was pretty hard to tear him away from the cake." Chloe laughs.

When Lucifer returns, he finds his sister laughing with the dete-Chloe, and isn't sure what to think about it.


	12. Chapter 12

Damn Amenadiel and his ridiculous theories. It's because he's in a relationship with Linda, that's probably why, Lucifer thinks to himself. All of these ... people in relationships, they want other people to be in relationships. So they can be in some sort of ... relationship club thing. 

Or maybe it's Dad's fault.

No, no, all of that feels ... wrong. Amenadiel has no reason to do this, not anymore.

It could be dad. Possibly.

Or maybe it is the vapors. 

He groans, lying down on the bed, and stares at the ceiling. Yup. It's the vapors. 

The bell from the elevator rings.

"Maze, I am absolutely not in the mood for whatever it is that you want!" He shouts.

"Not Maze." a voice shouts back.

Lucifer groans, burying his head under the pillow. 

"Are you all right?" Chloe comes over, her shoes tapping on the terrazzo floors. 

He mumbles into his pillow. 

"I didn't hear that?"

"I said I think I have the vapors or something." Lucifer says distinctly, turning his head to one side. Oh, Dad. It gets worse when he sees her, too. Definitely the vapors. His stomach is roiling.

"What does that even mean, _the vapors?_ " She sits down on the side of the bed. "Is that an actual illness?"

"Of course it is! Don't they teach you anything about medicine? I suppose they don't do medicine at police school, do they?" 

Chloe looks 'the vapors' up on her phone. "Lucifer ... " She tries to decide whether she should tell him that 'the vapors' was found to be, effectively, 'nerves'.

Probably best not to mention it. She needs to talk to Linda.

Linda sits back in her plush blue chair. "He says he has _the vapors?_ "

"Yes, that's exactly what he said. And I talked to another one of his sisters. Raphael - she's rather nice, a doctor I think?"

"Oh, yes!" Linda says. "She comes down to check on Charlie. She's lovely, really knowledgeable about celestial biology. Talks to me about Charlie's wing development and what to expect."

"And after he talked to her, he was going on about having the 'vapors'. I looked that up, and it was some kind of nervous condition. But he was ... talking like he thought it was an actual illness, Linda."

"The only medical text in his library is from the 14th century, he said it was a gift. Maybe it was from Raphael."

"That sounds ... actually fairly accurate." _The book, and the illness. And I have to think about what Raphael said to me._


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts. Realizations. Wing sex. And parties.

Chloe thinks about Lucifer that evening, and how she feels about him.

About they met in the bar. About how they got to know each other, over time. Over case after case.

How he is with Trixie.

About how he never really _lied_ to her.

The sweet things he has done for her. That time he played for her at the dive bar. The burger moment she tried to deny was a moment for so long. The _prom_. 

About his past. About how he was thrown into Hell, alone, basically starved of touch and contact for years. 

About the family members she's met. All of them seemed to be ... trying to get to know him better. Azrael had said _he needs someone like you_. Duma had said he was _wayward_. Raphael had said _emotional maturity wasn't that big in Hell._ He had said _I used to go for a walk around the lake of fire, that was all right_.

He had left when he wasn't that much older than Trixie was now. She couldn't imagine throwing a _child_ away from their home and family forever like that, leaving them with no one.

There's really only one answer to Raphael's question.

She picks up her car keys. "Maze, can you watch Trixie?"

"Why?" Maze asks from her room.

"Because I have to do something, that's why, and I don't want to wait until tomorrow morning." _In case I lose my nerve_.

"Oh, _fine._ "

Lucifer couldn't sleep a bloody wink, of course, because of the fucking vapors, so he was smoking on the balcony. 

He had been keeping a mental list of things that didn't work against this thing.

Things that don't work - food (at least anything he'd tried) sleep (utter failure) wanking (pointless) drinking (nothing). Also cocaine, molly, ecstasy and marijuana. Absolute zilch. Zero. Nyet. Nada.

And now, tobacco. 

"What are you trying to _do_ to me!" He shouts. "I gave mum her own universe, I went back to Hell for at least a while, what else am I supposed to do? Seriously? The fucking vapors, dad? Really?"

And it obviously wasn't _love_ , what in Dante's seven Hells did _Amenadiel_ know about _love?_? That's like asking a _cat_ not to be a condescending arse. 

"Lucifer?"

Oh, great. His stomach twisted into the same knots he used to use on Amenadiel's robes. Unfortunately he never could remember how to get those ones undone. Particularly on one's on entrails while one was still using them. Not really the smartest idea to cut those ones out. If the detect- _Chloe_ and Linda were angry about him cutting off his wings, they'd be pissed about him cutting out his entrails, too.

Chloe came out onto the balcony. Her hair was loose, down around her shoulders, the way he liked it. Her eyes glowed in the low lights of the city below, and she hadn't changed her clothes from work. 

"You look terrible." she says.

"Thanks." He stubs out his cigarette. 

"I love you." 

"What?"

She smiles at him. "Are _you_ having a senior moment?"

He chuckles, the tension in his eyes relieved by humor. "No, just a bit stunned." 

A pause.

Lucifer wraps his wings around her. She is enfolded again in that white dome, faintly glowing.

Chloe reaches out, this time to touch them. "Can I?"

"It's ... well, there's a reason that only family does this sort of thing."

"Are they sensitive?"

He has that devilish smile. "Not _exactly_ sensitive. Usually only mates groom each others' wings. Well, after you get your final set, when you aren't a child anymore."

She raises an eyebrow. "I see. So it's an erogenous zone, then. You have an enormous erogenous zone on your back."

"Mmmmm. Humans were on to something with feathers and didn't even know it."

Chloe strokes a feather with one finger. "Am I your mate?"

He nods, a moan escaping from between parted lips. "No one else could ever really be but you. That feels _bloody fantastic_. The last time I did this I was on the Throne of Hell and trust me, there is absolutely no comparison."

Chloe chokes with laughter. "You ..."

"Rubbed one out on the Throne of Hell? All the time. Wasn't much else to do up there. Luckily it had a back and I have two hands. Besides, miles in the air, only angel about, who was going to see me? Not that I really gave a damn if anyone did, serves them right for looking."

She's bolder with her next touches, uses more of her hand. Lucifer's dark eyes are wide, pupils blown; his second moan is louder. Her other hand reaches down between his thighs, and his already-hard cock jumps at her touch. 

"Bloody hell, Chloe." he whispers, and spreads his wings back from around her to just behind him.

She's about to ask him why he did that, and then she realizes - to give her space to fold out her own wings, which she does. He smiles brilliantly, as though she's read his mind, and reaches up to gently massage one of her feathers.

Oh. _Oh._

It's like the first bright, brilliant stripe of vibrant pleasure on her clit, but magnified. It's the feeling of him filing her with his cock, but better. It courses through her like a wave.

"Fuck." Lucifer groans, spilling over her hand.

"Yeah, yeah." She's panting, and she can feel her eyes rolling back in her head.

She rests her head on his chest, wings folded back in, running her fingers through his curls. "Do you feel better?"

"You know, I really do. So sex works. Wanking doesn't. That's odd."

"Lucifer, do you know what that was you had happening?" She's trying hard not to smile.

"Well, in the end I blame my father, of course. It's obviously his fault, everything is. Amenadiel had some _ridiculous_ theory about me being in _love_ with you, but that's completely stupid, what would he know about it?"

She looks at him. Really, really _looks_. Right into the darkness of his eyes.

She can actually see when the moment of realization hits him. Realization, uncertainty. 

_Emotional maturity wasn't that big in Hell._

_Sixteen years old. No family._

_Demons would see emotions as a vulnerability and exploit them._

_He's terrified of saying the words, because his desire powers don't work on you._

"He's going to be such an annoying _shit_ about this whole thing." Lucifer breathes. "Just like when he found out he was Dad's favorite. It was all I heard about for _ages_."

Chloe splutters with laughter. "What?"

"Amenadiel! He's such an irritating prat, and he's even more annoying when he's right. And he's right about _this_ which means he can gloat for the rest of the bloody millennium. And eventually it's going to get around to the rest of the family and - augh!" He looks up at the ceiling. "Damn you, dad!"

Now she can't stop laughing, holding her sides because it _hurts_ , and suddenly her wings just pop out of her shoulders of their own accord, and he starts chuckling, too.

"That's just a thing." He eventually gasps. "That happens sometimes."

The Tribe Night/Bachelorette Party (Chloe's third, and as far as she was concerned, last) was in the penthouse.

Ella arrived first, because she was organizing. Then Eve and Maze, together; and then Linda, who'd left Charlie with her aunt. Trixie, too.

Azrael landed on the balcony, her wings folding in as she lands, and Trixie runs over to see. "Wow! Mom, she has wings just like yours! Is that Lucifer's sister?"

"Yes, honey, it is one of them." Chloe chuckles. "That's -"

"Rae-Rae?" Ella almost drops the bottle of tequila on the floor. Then she runs over to the balcony and hugs her.

"I guess they know each other." Linda shrugs. "How weird."

Then it was Raphael, her hair down and wearing a green dress, not scrubs; then another sister, one with darker, longer hair, holding a spear and looking awkward in a denim skirt and t-shirt. 

"I'm Remiel." she explains. "Raphael told me about this. She insisted I come."

"Put that _away,_ , Remi." Raphael takes the spear out of her hand, tosses it behind the bar, and replaces it with a pina colada. "Drink this."

She sips it. "It is ... cold. I do not like it."

"Get something different, then. Luci has _everything _." She waves her hand at the bar selection.__

__"Where is he?"_ _

__"This is just for girls! It's a big party for Chloe before she marries our idiot brother and officially becomes a member of our family. He's having his own party somewhere else."_ _

__"Probably involving strippers, drugs, and Amenadiel lecturing him." Linda says with a twinkle in her eye._ _

__"I am so sorry." Azrael says from over their shoulder._ _

__"Why is that bad?" Remi says. "I've always thought his lectures were helpful."_ _

__"Oh, Remi, honey." Raphael hands her a Scotch. "Try this. Not as cold."_ _

__She drinks it and nods. "This is better."_ _

__

__Eventually there is a lot of laughing. Eve knows _everyone_ , of course. Trixie falls asleep on Lucifer's bed; Maze carries her in there, and Eve sits with her while she drifts off, looking like the eternal mother that she is before she comes back to drinking. There are pictures. And strippers, and the story of how Azrael and Ella met. _ _

__Most of the non-celestials fall asleep. Azrael has to fly off for work after a while. Remi discovers that alcohol is one of the things she likes about humans, and makes a friend in Maze. They compare battle techniques - knives versus spears. Maze offers to take her around some clubs sometime with Eve. Remi accepts._ _

__

__"And then _Daniel_ spilled his drink, clumsy bugger that he is, all over Duma." Lucifer was snickering. "Of course, Duma got him back later when he tied his shoelaces together. And he learned that knot from me, I might add." He folds his wings back in and lies back on their bed, completely naked and utterly shameless. "How was _your_ party?"_ _

__"Oh, lots of fun. I never met Remiel before."_ _

__Lucifer actually startles at that. "What, Amenadiel's tiny clone was actually there? You're _joking_!"_ _

__"Oh, she was there. I think Raphael forced her to come."_ _

__"Well, _that_ makes more sense."_ _

__"But she made friends with Maze."_ _

__"She made friends? With _Mazikeen_?"_ _

__"They were talking about fighting techniques."_ _

__"All right, we're back to making sense again."_ _

__"Maze offered to take her around some clubs for drinks."_ _

__"And ... again to confused. It's like a yo-yo."_ _

__"I bet Maze will introduce her to other things at the clubs, too." Her grin is impish._ _

__"Aaaugh! Detective!"_ _


End file.
